Kumail Nanjiani Says the "Greatest Thing" He Owns Are Original The X-Files Writers' Notes

Kumail Nanjiani, who will star in the upcoming Marvel adaptation The Eternals, gave fans on social [...]

By Russ Burlingame

Kumail Nanjiani, who will star in the upcoming Marvel adaptation The Eternals, gave fans on social media an inside look at his own special corner of geekdom yesterday when he shared the image of a set of index cards, created by the writers' room on The X-Files in order to keep track of the beats of the episode "The Field Where I Died." According to Nanjiani, he was given the cards by Glen Morgan, who wrote for the series, including many of the actor's favorite episodes. Nanjiani appeared in the role of Pasha in "Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster," probably the best-received (and wackiest) episode of the recent revival of the long-running Fox series.

In the episode, written by Morgan and James Wong, Mulder and Scully are investigating a cult compound when they meet a female member, who seems to have access to her past lives and uncover a startling personal revelation. The episode was, pretty clearly, inspired in part by the deadly and controversial raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993.

The cult leader in the episode, Vernon Ephesian (Michael Massee), was named after Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, whose birth name was Vernon Wayne Howell. Along the way, though, you can see that the influences ran deep enough that in the writers' room, they were using Koresh's name as a placeholder.

You can check out the tweet below.

Recently, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige teased that the Eternals know about the Avengers, and their reasons for staying hidden will be a major part of the plot. "The Eternals know about the existence of The Avengers. The Avengers don't know much about The Eternals…Yet," Feige explained at CCXP in December. "Celestials are a big part of it, you've seen a little of the Celestials in Guardians of the Galaxy. Knowhere is the severed head of a Celestial. We will see the Celestials in their full, true enormous power in The Eternals."

Marvel's updated release schedule sees Black Widow arriving in theaters on November 6th. It is followed The Eternals on February 12, 2021, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on May 7th 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on November 5, 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on February 18, 2022, Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022, and Captain Marvel 2 on July 8, 2022. Disney+ also has The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, What If...?, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight on the way.

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